Canned Cocktails Vs Hard Seltzer: What's The Difference?

We live in a magical time when it comes to the adult beverage category known as ready-to-drink or RTDs. These canned, bottled, and pouched beverages are (as the name implies) ready to pop open and quaff straight from the container or over ice. Within the larger RTD category, canned cocktails like Cutwater Spirits and hard seltzers like White Claw or Truly reign supreme. Both generally have alcohol, many are effervescent, and a lot of them taste like fruit-flavored vodka tonics. So, what makes a canned cocktail different from a hard seltzer? The short answer is the base alcohol. But the long answer is: It's complicated.

One of the most noticeable differences between hard seltzer and many canned cocktails is the alcohol content or alcohol by volume (ABV). Canned cocktails tend to have a higher proof (6% to 13% ABV) than hard seltzers (4% to 8% ABV). This is because most hard seltzers use a fermented (rather than distilled) malt-based alcohol and are part of a larger group called Flavored Malt Beverages or FMBs. Meanwhile, many — but not all — canned cocktails incorporate traditional high-proof distilled spirits like vodka, rum, or tequila. There are additional flavor and style differences: Some are carbonated, some include mixers, and then there's how the brand is marketed. There are also plenty of products that blend elements from multiple RTD sub-categories.

Hard seltzers are far and away the dominant beverage type within the RTD category, and within that, White Claw and Truly are two of the best sellers, making up about 75% of all FMB / hard seltzer sales in 2020, according to NielsenIQ. Interestingly, there's no official definition for what constitutes a hard seltzer. The industry generally agrees that, at its core, hard seltzers consist of carbonated soda water, flavorings, and a sugar-based or malt-based grain alcohol (fermented, like beer, rather than distilled). Zima, a somewhat notorious 1990s drink, is generally considered one of the first actual FMBs / hard seltzers. Two decades later, White Claw carried the category into the stratosphere. Created by Anthony von Mandl (the same guy who gave us Mike's Hard Lemonade) and launched in 2016, White Claw blew up right before the pandemic and claimed at one point to outsell Budweiser.

Now, a plethora of smaller labels vie for shelf space, competing with beer, hard cider, and hard kombucha in supermarkets and gas stations. Major suppliers like Patco Brands are creating hard seltzers for Costco and other retailers. Because most hard seltzers use a fermented malt base, they tend to be low-proof and lower-calorie (White Claw has 100 calories per can compared to Budweiser's 145). Malt-based alcohol mimics vodka but has a distinctive, earthy note. Because these drinks incorporate seltzer water or natural sparkling water, hard seltzers are, by default, effervescent. Most feature a single fruit flavor like lemon, mango, or cherry.

Like hard seltzer, there's no legal definition of what, specifically, constitutes a canned cocktail. The primary distinction for most producers is the presence of higher-proof, distilled alcohol, but it's not mandatory. Proper labeling is tricky (thanks to convoluted alcohol laws), and distilled spirits generally are taxed at a higher rate than fermented alcohol like beer, wine, or FMBs. So, some brands use a fruit wine or agave wine in place of vodka or tequila. While many canned cocktails are carbonated, they don't have to be (unlike hard seltzers).

Canned cocktails (which have experienced increasing shares of the total RTD market annually since 2020) can also be as simple or as complex as the producer wants, from vodka tonics to multi-ingredient bartender originals. The sky's the limit, with brands like Cutwater, Tip Top, and LiveWire releasing elevated mixed drinks in canned form.

Aaron Polsky, founder of LiveWire (a brand that collaborates with actual bartenders), told Chowhound that a good canned cocktail takes the drink's ideal serving temperature into account and is "made with awareness around how juice ages and how it stays fresh, which is not at all." Fresh juices might seem like a great idea, but they are nearly impossible to preserve long-term. LiveWire and other brands instead rely on citrus extracts and organic acids. "It's why people say that LiveWire tastes like a cocktail that was made for them at the bar," Polsky says. Quality flavor agents and actual distilled spirits are, in fact, among the ingredients to look for in a great canned cocktail, according to experts.

There are reasons the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) opts not to make hard-and-fast definitions for canned cocktails and hard seltzers. There's so much overlap that it's challenging to find clean delineations. While the original version of Mike's Hard Lemonade is not a hard seltzer, it is considered to be one of the earliest FMBs (flavored malt beverage), which hard seltzers ... also are. In fact, Mike's finally launched its own line of hard seltzers in 2021. Meanwhile, White Claw launched vodka sodas featuring the brand's own distillate (plus other drinks that could classify as canned cocktails, like a tequila smash) in 2023. Many canned margarita cocktails, on the other hand, employ lower-proof agave wine, which is not one of the ingredients you want in a quality canned margarita. And, of course, now there are alcohol-free options like The Pathfinder's canned Negroni and an entire range of zero-proof mixed drinks from Free AF.

"I think it's actually quite a blurred line," says LiveWire's Aaron Polsky, adding, "especially with us, because we are so clean in both finish and appearance." He points out that many people expect a certain amount of cloudiness in their canned cocktails, but he strives for clarity (another reason to eschew real juices). "So we sort of took this hybrid approach. It looks like a seltzer, but tastes like a cocktail."